What a difference a day makes! Yesterday afternoon I learned that I have been selected as the SNP candidate for Central Ayrshire to take on Brian Donohoe and I’ve been birlin ever since! I would like to thank all the SNP members who voted for me and now we all need to pull together and use our talents to win this seat. I am grateful for all the kind messages of support, from all over Scotland, and have been trying to answer as many as possible. That is why I am only writing this a day late.

It is daunting to think of giving up the great career that I have but, having looked after patients one at a time for over 30 years, I feel I need to help tackle the underlying problems that contribute so much to our ill health. We have spent two years envisaging a better Scotland and despite the outcome of the referendum, we need to start working to build it.

I hope to be part of a strong SNP team heading to Westminster to get useful powers to protect our public services and change our society to bring back real social security and fight the poverty which is worsening all across our country. At the same time we all need to work in our local communities to build that better Scotland from the ground up. We can all look around us to see what needs done and who needs help and then think – what could I do?

Brian Donohoe has a majority of 12,000 so this is a real challenge but with our new membership it is do-able. I will put all my energy into winning this seat but will need your strength behind me so I can go to Westminster and carry your voices to speak out against immoral weapons of mass destruction and for the development of a society that looks after her people.